Reports last night were that Marco Rubio changed his vote to yes, and Bob Corker changed his vote to yes, and Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski are leaning yes. That leaves only McCain and Thad Cochran as iffy, since they're out on medical. There's a real chance this thing could pass.

In addition to the giveaway to the donor class, buried in the bill is a deathblow to Obamacare (killing the mandate), raising the estate tax exemption to $22m, and a provision making it legal for tax-exempt religious organizations to contribute to political races.

One commentator on MSNBC last night hit the nail on the head when he said Republicans like to cut taxes and raise the deficit, making themselves look like small government crusaders. They know that Democrats, in the next cycle, will raise taxes and reduce the deficit -- so they can accuse them of being "tax and spend libruls."

I hate to say it but from the look of it, for us it would actually lower our taxes. You raise that standard deduction to 24k and then only want 12% after that and yeah. Trump's better for us than Obama was.

Yes, the standard deduction was raised, but the personal exemptions were removed. You should expect to save forty to fifty dollars on your income tax (less if you are single). In the top one percent, the average tax savings is around $130,000. You won't notice a difference in your income (less than one dollar a week), but the national debt will go way up and guess who will wind up paying it. And who will have needed services cut, including medical? Not the wealthy, that's for damned sure.

Oh, I have no doubts at all that we're about to see all kinds of services severely cut. I don't think a failure to pass this tax plan would change that. Let me be clear, I am not for this plan. I get what the long term effect will be. I would like to see my plan implemented- which would raise corporate rates and inheritance taxes and put those lowest in income into a situation where there was a certain amount of guaranteed income they could chose to get periodically or at the end of the year as a refund. But nobody asks me. What I have tried to get across to people is that as long as po people like me will see a reduction in our taxes it's going to be hard to get those already taxed (in so many ways) people to pick up the phone or email and actually contact a rep and basically say, "yeah- I know this helps me but I don't want it and here's why."

What I have tried to get across to people is that as long as po people like me will see a reduction in our taxes it's going to be hard to get those already taxed (in so many ways) people to pick up the phone or email and actually contact a rep and basically say, "yeah- I know this helps me but I don't want it and here's why."

And that is exactly what I did when Bush was pushing his tax cuts. I called my rep (who was unfortunately, a Republican) and told him that I - and a lot of people like me, who would benefit from the tax cuts - were dead set against them because of the harm to lower-income people and to the economy as a whole. I was ignored by him, of course. I sent actual snail mails to both our Senators making the same statement and received nice boiler plate responses. But at least they expressed their agreement.

That's because our so-called "democracy" doesn't give a shit about constituents, They only care about the American Enterprise Institute, Cato Foundation, American Crossroads and the Heritage Foundation and what THEY want, because they fund their campaigns and will support challengers if they don't.

There is no sliver lining to this tax plan.The impact on the middle class will be horrendous.The macro-economic effect could be disastrous and long-lived.The benefits to the uber-rich and the corporations will be as intended.

The Democrats and MSM have one set of figures for what it'll do to the economy. The Republicans and Trump TV have an entirely different projection.

All we can do now is wait & see how it shakes out. I have lost a lot of faith in journalism since the November 2016 election, which they said Hillary had a 94% chance of winning. I don't know who to believe anymore.

The Republican projections are fairly ludicrous. At best, the economy will blip a little higher for a year or two. The Republicans know this, but are hoping that will be enough to enable them to survive the 2018 elections. That's all the political calculus they need to justify wrecking the country.

It's not true that everybody is powerless to stop them. The fact is that tens of millions of people in the country vote to allow them to do these things. They vote for local, state, and federal officials who have been doing shit like this for decades. So you should replace the word powerless with the word stupid.

The Republicans have bet the future of their party on this tax cut plan.

If it goes well, if people perceive they're paying less in taxes (regardless of what this does long-term to the economy) Republicans will do alright in the mid-terms.

If OTOH people perceive that this tax cut affects only the rich, and they as middle- to lower-class Americans will end up paying more, then the Republican party won't win another election, not even dogcatcher, for a generation. It's a risky bet. I've got to believe their analyses have shown at least a reasonable chance of "success" (defined as above) or else you wouldn't have gotten so many Republicans signing their death warrant.

If it goes well, if people perceive they're paying less in taxes (regardless of what this does long-term to the economy) Republicans will do alright in the mid-terms.

That doesn't apply to all people. There are a lot of people who will get some (short-term) benefit, but who still oppose the law.

A quick look shows that we will probably be in a lower tax bracket that will save us about $8,000 in taxes. However, I won't know for sure because I don't know what deductions we will lose.

Quote :

Under the tax bill, a $10,000 deduction limit would be applied to the combined value of property taxes and state and local income taxes. The legislation also would forbid a taxpayer from prepaying part of those expenses this year, which would have been a way to possibly get a bigger tax break.

We just prepaid our 2018 property taxes, expecting to get the deduction this year. What the hell, guy?

And we will also be paying over $4,000 in post hoc taxes on Medicare. But that isn't Trump's doing.